Baby born in jam as Pakistan's president drives by

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters Life!) - A Pakistani woman gave birth to a baby girl in an auto-rickshaw stuck in a traffic jam when police closed roads to let President Asif Ali Zardari’s motorcade drive by.

The woman was being driven to hospital in the city of Quetta on Thursday evening when police blocked roads for Zardari and his convoy to pass.

“We pleaded with the policemen as it was an emergency but they refused citing orders that no one should be allowed to move until the president passed,” the woman’s bother, Mohammad Zafar, told reporters.

“It’s outrageous. People suffer unduly whenever a top government official moves,” he said.

Both the mother and the baby, who had yet to be named, were doing well, he said.

Zardari was upset by the incident and had ordered an inquiry, the state-run APP news agency reported.

“Alternative routes must be provided to ensure that the people do not suffer,” APP cited him as saying.

Security for government leaders is tight in Pakistan where Islamist militants have carried out numerous bomb attacks, many on convoys carrying top officials or members of the security forces.

Former president Pervez Musharraf survived two bomb attacks on his convoy.

Reporting by Gul Yousafzai; Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel and Miral Fahmy